Prince William & Kate Visit Military Charity Workers at London Tube Station

Prince William and Kate surprised commuters at a London tube station Thursday when they visited volunteers raising money for war veterans.

They took a specially chartered red London bus a short quarter mile from their palace home to the High Street Kensington station.

There, they met and chatted with charity workers who were selling the traditional red poppy emblems Britons wear to commemorate casualties of war.

William and Kate, both 31, were helping to promote a Royal British Legion bid to raise £1.6 million (or $2.5 million) for the charity in a single day in the capital.

The couple, who had left aides watching their 3-½-month-old son, Prince George, sleeping at home in Kensington Palace, had earlier greeted Royal British Legion staff, helpers and supporters outside their apartment at the palace.

On the bus ride to the station, the Duke of Cambridge told volunteers he and his wife were happy to have now settled into their 21-room apartment at Kensington Palace. "It's quite nice being in one place," he said.

Prince William (left) and Kate (second from right) chat with British actress Barbara Windsor (far right)

Carl Court / EPA / Landov

Kate, meanwhile, revealed she's tried her hand at flying, just like her former RAF officer husband.

While chatting with a group of RAF men, she said that William missed flying helicopters but also explained that she's tried piloting a plane herself, following in the footsteps of her late grandfather Peter Middleton, an RAF hero.

"My grandfather flew planes. I've had a few lessons on fixed wing," she said.

William – who, as a youngster, had been taken on the tube by his mother, Princess Diana – pondered the pleasures of being crammed in with other passengers.

"It's very sociable," he said, "Although I suppose everyone's got their earphones in."

Five minutes later, as the bus arrived at Kensington High Street, William and Kate emerged to meet armed forces personnel and volunteers spending two weeks selling remembrance poppies there.